Winter Term 2016: SemPÖ1
DESIGNING A TED-STYLE TALK
ON ECONOMIC DESIGN AND VALUES
“Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to
work together to build the impossible.”
(Stephen Hawking)
“The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage
presence, or smooth talking. It’s having something worth to say.”
(Chris Anderson, Head of TED)
I. TOPIC DESCRIPTION
Societies depend on institutional regulations that shape their ways of social life.
Elements of economic design and market design play an important role in the
organization of societies and their economies.
Do the established structures (like markets – free or regulated –, voting systems or
labor organization) meet our social requirements and moral standards? How could
we reshape and design the institutions in our society to reach social justice and
improve welfare?
TED talks have a duration of max. 18 minutes. Their purpose is to share “ideas worth
spreading” with a broad audience. After more than 30 years of TED conferences and
with over 3 billion views of online TED talks, this format shows that powerful public
speaking needs less than 20 minutes.
What is your idea you like to share?
II. SCOPE OF THE SEMINAR
During the seminar, students develop their own “idea worth spreading” which will
be presented in a TED-style talk (or video). Students are expected to work in teams
of two. Students can apply as teams. We will try to respect students’ wishes when
assigning teams. (There is no guarantee we can respect your wishes, but we will do
our best. Students can of course also apply individually; we will assign teams in the
end.)
We provide a list of possible topics for the seminar. Each topic may be assigned no
more than twice. Students may also suggest their own ideas and topics of interest
and use the suggested topics as a source of inspiration. Assignment of binding topics
and binding teams will take place in the first two weeks of the seminar.
We expect from you a strong interest for the field of economic design and (moral)
values. Students are expected to work self-contained, open-minded and critically on
their topic. We encourage every team to work on their talk following their own
initiative, ideas and passion.
The introductory meeting will take place on 19 October 2016. There, you can also
think about teaming up with another participant. On 13 January 2017, there will be a
day of presentations where you share your “idea worth spreading” in a max. 18
minutes talk in TED-style or a max. 18 minutes OpenTED-style video
(https://open.ted.com). In the former case, and with your consent, we record and
analyze your talk together as a group in order to provide a unique feedback and
learning opportunity for you. Full attendance is required on that day for successful
participation in the seminar!
Seminar papers of 3-5 pages (plus references) have to be handed in by 28 February
2017. Master students have to include two summaries of different length: one with
70-100 words, one with 150-200 words. Presentations of max. 18 minutes are
followed by a discussion of the talk/video of about 20 minutes. Your contribution to
the discussions will be included in your grading. Grading consists of the seminar
paper (30%), your talk/video (50%) and discussion (20%).
Application will be possible via the centralized platform until 11 September 2016.
For further questions, please contact Leonie Fütterer ([email protected]).
III. TOPICS (SUGGESTIONS & SOURCES OF INSPIRATION)
1. Discrimination (set a specific focus, e.g. labor market)
2. Voting (e.g. the Trump Phenomenon/Brexit/Voting Systems…)
3. The Up- and Downsides of Lobbying
4. How much protection to consumers need?
5. Advertising: Curse or Blessing?
6. Achievement-oriented societies and values
7. Presentation of the thoughts of an important thinker in the domain of
institutions and moral values (such as C. Gilligan, K. Marx, E. Ostrom, A. Roth, M.
Sandel, A. Smith, …)
8. Gender: Where are we, and where should we be?
9. Privacy or Security?
10. Thoughts on: Google/Apple/Facebook…
11. Trading Organs
12. Towards sustainable fashion?/food?/electronics?